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"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared a recent rash of seal deaths to be an "unusual mortality event" on Tuesday. More than 60 seals have died and 75 found diseased in Alaska with skin sores and patchy hair loss. The Fish and Wildlife Service has also identified diseased and dead walruses."

"In most cases, necropsies and lab tests have revealed skin lesions, fluid in the lungs, white spots on the liver, and abnormal growths in the brain. Some of the seals and walruses have undersized lymph nodes, possibly a sign of weakened immuned systems."

"A mysterious and potentially widespread disease is thought to have contributed to the deaths of dozens of ringed seals along Alaska's Arctic coast. Scores more are sickened, some so ill that skin lesions bleed when touched. The animals are an important subsistence food, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has proposed listing them as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act."

""Right now we're leaning toward it being a virus, and that could weaken their immune system,""

"Reports of nearly 150 other seals with the illness have come in from villages outside Barrow, population 4,200, as well as from Chukotka, Russia, and Tuktoyuktak, a village on the northwestern corner of Canada, Herreman said."

"He's concerned the illness will spread up the food chain, affecting other animals and hunters near Kotzebue Sound."

""I'm scared they might pass it on one way or another and the whole ocean could be affected," Shiedt said. Folks in the Barrow region also are worried. Many of the Slope's Inupiat residents are about to begin hunting for seals, and some are wondering if they are safe to eat, Herreman said."

"The sickest ones don't move much on the beaches and they have blisters or wounds that bleed easily, including around the nose, eyes and especially the rear flippers. Others have lost much of their hair. "They're not deathly skinny. It's not like they're dying from malnutrition."